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group; but that it is not the typhoid bacillus is proved by
the fact that it ferments glucose, bubbles gelatine in shake
culture, and does not agglutinate with typhoid blood.
(3.) Three out of fifteen oysters examined in this direction
contained the spores of the bacillus enteritidis sporogenes.
It follows, then, from these results that the interior of the oysters in
question contained distinctly the microbes found in sewage, and, comparing
the present results with those obtained by me in 1894-5, it seems that of
the Emsworth oysters many more contained sewage microbes than was
the case with other oysters derived from other sewage polluted localities.
(2.) Emsworth Water.—This water was examined on the lines
used for analysing water, and was carried out thus:—(a) Suspecting
that the water is of an impure character, ordinary gelatine plates were
made with 1/100 and cc respectively; (b) MacConkey tubes were
inoculated with 0.1 cc, 1 cc and 2 cc of the water; (c) 1,000 cc were
passed through a Pasteur filter, and the outside of the candle was then
brushed off into 10 cc of sterile water. Of this filter brushing the
following cultures were made:—0.1 cc (corresponding to the particulate
matter of 10 cc of the original water) was added to each one phenol broth
and one MacConkey tube; 0.1, 0.5 and 1 cc of the filter brushing
(equal to the particulate matter of 10, 50 and 100 cc of the original water)
were added to the recently boiled sterilised milk; 0.1 cc of the filter
brushing was added to each, one phenol Agar and one phenol gelatine
plate; from the ensuing growths sub-cultures were made as in the case
of the oysters. The result was:—
(a) The water contained above 10,000 microbes per 1 cc; (b) the
water contained several bacillus coli communis per 0.1 cc, i.e.,
it contained between 50 and 100 of these per 1 cc; (c) the
water contained at least 1 spore of bacillus enteritidis
sporogenes per 10 cc; (d) the water contained a variety of
bacillus coli which, in most respects, compares with bacillus
Gaertner, it clearly belongs to the Gaertner-typhoid group,
but its emulsion does not become agglutinated with typhoid
blood, not even 1 in 20. It is, however, in morphological
(including multiflagellated) and cultural respects identical
with the variety mentioned previously as found in the oysters.
From this it would appear, therefore, that this water is
distinctly, and to a large extent, polluted with sewage;
moreover, the identity of the Gaertner-typhoid variety of
bacillus coli in the water and in the oyster seems to point to
the presence of the same kind of sewage in both.
December 30th, 1902. E. KLEIN.
The bacterioscopic examination thus, as in the case of the cockles,
absolutely demonstrates what one would naturally expect from the result of
inspection of the pits and sewage outfall, viz., that both the water and
oysters were contaminated with excrementitious matter. Though the bacillus
typhosus was not absolutely identified, if sewage be present there is at any
moment the possibility of this and other infectious organisms being met with.